STRETCHING THE LIMITS: Breakthroughs in Sports Science That Create Super Athletes

by Lee Torrey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1985

A comprehensive survey of all of the technological advances in sports which are gradually changing the face of the athletic world. As one professional baseball player recently said,""When a ballplayer comes to the stadium now, he comes as a corporation."" But it isn't just the money angle that has changed: in the last decade, the computer has entered the clubhouse and even, in some cases, the dugout. Torrey takes us, sport by sport, on a tour of how the computer and sports medicine and science are being put to use. Taking football as an example, Torrey shows how training has evolved from general conditioning, ball handling, sprint drills, and running laps to weight lifting, flexibility exercises, speed training (including sprint towing, in which a runner is hooked up to a simulated car that forces him to keep up with its pace), and plyometrics, a form of ballistics exercise involving repetitive long jumps, triple jumps, and hurdles. This mirrors what is happening in most other sports, where general conditioning has been replaced by specific exercises geared to the requirements of the sport. The sports buff, the seasoned athlete and trainers at all levels will enjoy this survey, even while coping with such terminology as hypertrophy, vestibulo-ocular tracking, visuo-motor behavior rehearsal, anaerobic threshhold, and elevated postexercise oxygen consumption. But it is to Torrey's credit that he manages to make this all understandable to the lay reader. An interesting speculation upon the limits of athetic performance in the future rounds out this useful addition to sports literature.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1985

Categories: NONFICTION